Time to Get Real

You can do all the fucking roster analysis (cough … speculation … cough) you want, but it should be inexcusable that people aren’t asking some serious questions about these results!

Instead, it’s a nonchalant attitude as if these things don’t matter. Or it’s simply the typical culture of excuses based on presumption and superficial, novice-level, reasoning.

Let’s take the biggest ‘shocker‘ here: the Portland Timbers result.

I’m the first to say anything can happen in a game. And I’m also the first to caution against single match analysis without witnessing the game. For all we know Portland could have demonstrated clear superiority for 90 minutes and PSA Elite had a couple breaks on the counter.

What concerns me is the silence and lack of attempt at genuine inquiry.

I want to hear loud and important questions like:

Does Portland care about its U23’s? How fucking much?

Does Portland have the best coach possible for the U23’s? How do you know? What was the criteria?

Is Portland going balls out to get the best possible players? If not, why not?

Anything short of the Portland Timbers going nuts to the wall apeshit with passion to produce the best fucking U23’s in the country is unacceptable! Totally unacceptable!

Is this the case?

That’s what I want to know. And that’s what you should want to know and demand!

No lame ass, weak ass, novice-level and presumptuous excuses. Not only do you not learn anything from that, but you continue to give an easy ‘pass’ to the US Soccer pyramid. You say you want progress, but you’re actually just complicit with the status quo.

You people are mediocre. Why aren’t you striving for excellence?

Can you tell I’m pissed?

Imagine how ballistic I’ll be if either of these no-name teams manages to oust their next opponent.

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I love having your 3four3 channel in my YouTube subscription feed. YouTube is one my first stops each morning and it was a joy to get one from you this morning!

Cal FC was the team playing Cal Poly-SLO when I Tweeted you about them NEEDING defenders. Cal FC literally walked through them. I remember looking across the field at the Cal FC bench and only seeing one substitute. Then, looking at the Poly side and seeing a herd of players. If that doesn’t say something about player selection… I don’t know what does? 12 vs 40… and 12 destroyed. You could say the same about the coaching staff. Cal FC with just two coaches and Poly with 4 or 5.

Quality > Quantity?

I think Wynalda is definitely out to prove something. Judging by his teams performance (against lesser competition obviously), I can vouch that they did some really good things. They had 4 or 5 REALLY, REALLY nice build ups against Poly in the first half. Their goals were practically walked in, not forced. They used their holding mid in possession repeatedly which let their attacking mids run wild and get the ball in excellent attacking positions. When their attacking players got the ball… they were creative! Just like they demonstrate in the video above. They were confident enough to try back heels and little flicks anywhere on the field. It was fun to watch.

Did you guys coach any of those players on PSA? I know you used to have a few boys teams that might be right around that age now.

We know the majority of the players on both PSA and Cal FC.
Have we coached any? Yes.

I want to just highlight the D-mid for Cal FC.
Richie Menjivar.
He just finished his Senior year at Cal State Bakersfield and was snubbed by MLS.
Then he goes on to play for El Salvador U23s during Olympic qualifying. You know, the team that killed the USMNT Olympic run.

“My goal was always to play MLS and play for the United States,” says Menjivar, who sat out last night’s game against the U.S. with an ankle injury. “I was born here. I watched every minute of every (U.S.) national team game. I was always supportive of the national team.”

But the road swerved at age 16, when he wasn’t selected to try out for U.S. Soccer’s vaunted under-17 residency program in Bradenton, Fla.

The following year, he was gone. A year after that, he was wearing the white and blue – no red – of El Salvador.

“I liked the school, I liked the program, but I wanted something else, you know?” he says. “I was turning 20 and I wanted to be a professional soccer player. If I stayed in school, I’d be 22 when I finished and I thought that would be too late.”

El Salvador, which has a population of about 7 million, has been so pleased with his progress that it initiated a program to identify more Carlos Menjivars, particularly in immigrant-rich Southern California.

“They seemed to have a greater advantage having been born (in the United States) and having more opportunities and infrastructure here. We hope it reaps fruit for the Salvadoran federation soon.”

Cal FC looks pretty entertaining! May be one-off game, but way more entertaining and show of skill than MLS. I’ve watched some of NPSL (Boca and Flas) . . . and they suck! I went to a Flash game with my U14 son and we left at half-time. Bad passing, poor dribbling, lots of kickball, just awful stuff! Flash is team Wynalda’s TV buddy Warren Barton coaches.

I’m leery of being labeled an excuse maker, but I wasn’t entirely surprised by the PSA vs Timbers U23 team. Why? Because your description of PSA as team slapped together in the past month for USOC seems pretty much the same as the Timbers U23. The U23s are a pro endeavor in that they play in a pro league and are under the thumb of the Portland Timbers, but they are really an amateur college select team that comes together for a 16 game summer season. This year it’s a chunk of the guys that were on the team last year plus some new standout college players from around the country. They started preseason on April 30, played one game (which they won) and then played another game which they lost to PSA. The U23s have done very well in the past couple years and no-doubt made the organization proud, and they will be held to high expectations this year, too. I just can’t bring myself to get too worked up over an amateur team losing its 2nd game, and it’s unfortunate that the new USOC setup (which I love) throws these kids into the fire so early as opposed to past years when they had played 5 or 6 games before USOC (those 5 or 6 games were actually how they determined who represented the PDL Northwest division in USOC).

Anyway, I still agree with all the questions you posed above about how they select players, making sure the coaching staff is good enough, etc.

Should Portland Timbers (and all other youth academies) be looking to fill their roster with college players? Or should they look to have a residency program of their own? I mean, come on, if you’re trying to build a professional organization and have a youth academy starting at U10… do you want your players taking a 4 year break when they should be PEAKING? Do you want them learning a different system for 4 years?

The other night I was bored and asked my Twitter followers for something to do to keep me busy. Gary responded and told me to make a video talking about problems in US Soccer. I talked about scouting/player selection and a little bit about college soccer… check it out… http://youtu.be/8IUKhQ-TKiY

I enjoyed listening to your video, and your discussion about the pay to play and about the expense of tournaments had me think of an idea. I don’t know that it could ever work logistically or anything but it’s just an idea. Instead of spending all this money on development academy and only reaching a small percentage of the player pool, and in my opinion at least not really enhancing the quality of our players anyways, what if the USSF instead could find a way to make these elite level tournaments free of charge, and maybe even provide housing and food to the players at the tournament. This would mean the best players in the country with no exceptions could play in these tournaments. I think this would be one of the small ways to slightly fix the pay to play problems that we have in this country, and help us from missing out on these tremendous players that can’t afford to play for a DA or elite team. This obviously wouldn’t solve everything but it could possibly be a step in the right direction if you could make it happen. Players would still have to pay the regular training and club fees but at least you are taking away the tremendous expenses of going to a tournament, particularly an elite tournament that is out of state.

Sorry to keep on rambling but your youtube video really has my mind going, I had another quick thought/question: -Say you even do make it to MLS in this country; with having to play for elite club teams, and then probably paying at least a portion of a large amount of college tuition, do you even turn a profit after making in MLS salary (which is probably peanuts anyways). Is this really worth the investment at this point, especially for kids who are seeing the salaries that NFL and NBA players are making. If someone has a way of running the costs of making it to the MLS and then comparing it to what you make as an MLS player, is this investment really even worth it?

The MLS setup and its salaries are a major reason we won’t produce players of any quality in this country. True quality players would pursue the game overseas for the competitive aspect as well as the salary potential. That leaves the average college boys and no name South Americans. And MLS is totally fine with that. They’re close to selling out their 20k stadiums already, what motivation do they have to make drastic increases in quality of play(er) and salary? Even if “my” Chicago Fire were allowed to bid on Eden Hazard (let’s say) and Wayne Rooney, it would be overkill. They’d sell out their remaining 3500 seats, but they couldn’t afford the salaries of these guys based on a full house of only 20k. MLS has intentionally set the bar low, and factored in our development system as part of that arrangement. They put the target exactly where they knew they could hit it based on how things are right now, not how things could be in the future. And now you’ve got a league largely full of fringe players that requires a Disciplinary Committee to RETROACTIVELY punish players for rough or illegal play because all these guys making $44k a year are literally playing for their one and only shot to try and scrape by playing the game they love, and will do anything to impress their coach (it’s like High School all over again). They deserve better, and so do we as fans of the game.

Hi Jonk,
Are the Timbers going after the absolute best players?
That’s what they should be doing right?

When you stated:
“plus some new standout college players from around the country”

What’s a “standout player”?
We need to be careful.

I’ll say this: What people in this country believe is a standout player, is actually not a standout player. And that’s a problem. These are the types of things that need to be explored and questioned. And when they’re not, we end up with an average product for average people.

The system is full of all these underachieving, technically deficient players.
These are the players that funnel thru the system, the poor college system, the MLS crap system that is in place.
All the good talent outthere is playing in your local leagues and teams like Cal Fc and others.

Definitely agree with Jonk. The USOC changes this year has made a mess of things for the amateur teams (PDL, MPSL, “Sunday League” teams, ETC). The PDL and MPSL virtually have 0 games as a team before competing in the USOC. This is why PSA won. That and the fact that PSA is coming to the end of their season. Yes, they added some talent to compete in the USOC, however, PSA has been competing in their league http://www.coastsoccer.org since October, games every weekend. On top of that PSA were runners up in the USASA national amateur cup. So, only the new players were “slapped together” the rest have consistently been playing games, and training week in and week out for months. Also, props to coach Gary Barry, who was selected by USASA as national amateur coach of the year. This isn’t the first time a team from Coast Soccer Adult league has beaten a PDL team. Hollywood United did it a couple years ago as well when they went up to the northwest and beat a PDL team. They lost their next game to a USL Pro team. However, were rewarded nicely by US Soccer for going the farthest of any “Amateur” team in the tournament. PSA and Cal FC look to be competing for that same honor this year. If you look at PSA Elite’s oppoenents record so far then you have to lean towards another PSA Elite win. I am looking forward to that because on their return they would play LA Galaxy and based on their form I wouldn’t be surprised at an upset. One of the worst ways to judge a team is by how they compete in tournaments. Teams make runs, sometimes it’s sloppy, sometimes it’s pretty but in tournament play you never know what can happen.
As for Portland and if they are upset about this…I doubt it. They have their MLS team, I bet they don’t care if their PDL team wins. They probably chock it up to “Development” and just use the PDL to look at players. PDL has become less important over the last few years as the USSDA has increased in significance. MLS teams started to go the way of PDL teams to add importance to a college players summer. But in the last few years the focus has gone towards USSDA. MLS knows they need to fill the gap for players 19-22 years old but they don’t know how with NCAA rules. Back to Portland U23’s. The majority of players who are playing PDL want 2 things. They want to get seen and they want to have a good place to train for the summer to be prepared for college. If a player doesn’t fall into one of those 2 categories then their dad probably owns the team or they are an older player still just wanting to compete at a “decent level”. I must say it is crazy how much soccer is changing. Being in southern california it is hard to keep up with everything that is going on both on the pro side, youth side, adult amateur side, etc. It evens expands into youth rec with AYSO getting involved in the club game, US Soccer standardizing licensing by making the E course a national course. Parents are so confused about what to do, where to go, etc. OK, enough rambling, let’s see what happens on Tuesday and i look forward to supporting PSA Elite against the LA Galaxy. And Cal FC? I am sure Lloyd and Eric are enjoying seeing their guys produce some good soccer. 5 passes in a row??? Sad that that is all we can hope for!

Hey Gary,
I will find out on the PSA Elite roster who are the “regulars” that play year round, if i can find the time. I do know that they have signed some “ringers” to compete in the open cup. However, the point I want to make is that the PDL overall is not as strong as it used to be. Rarely do teams bring in the same players every year. maybe a few here or there but it just doesn’t happen much. As is the case with most PDL teams, they are dealing with college players whose primary focus is their college team, not their PDL team. So, the huge difficulty for a PDL coach is recruiting the right players. It takes a Caleb Porter to do something like that. So we are back to the quality of coaching available in the US, not necessarily the quality of player. As for PDL coaches, they are not going to develop the players, there is very little training in terms of creating a system. The coach must bring in players who already have the quality & IQ to play. Aside from “Pro” soccer in the US – MLS, USL Pro & NASL, there is a soccer wasteland between the ages of 18-23 with very little development happening. It is too bad the USSDA doesn’t expand their program to include a U23 division. Why not? they already have successfully provided an alternative to High School soccer, now the next step is an alternative to college soccer for the “top prospects”. Of course, there will always be college soccer, but it should be taken down a notch as the next best step for players who have pro potential. A player who used to play for a PDL team who currently plays for PSA Elite told me recently, “I am not interested in pursuing a pro career, I can make much more in another field and can still play good soccer every weekend with PSA Elite.” Who knows, perhaps tomorrow or next week if they play against the Galaxy Bruce Arena will take notice and pick him up…Soccer is a thinking game, right? Perhaps it is the thinkers (at least in this country) who pull out sooner because they are smart enough to recognize pursuing a pro soccer career is futile. I have seen this personally first hand quite a few times.

Gary I think I can answer a few of your questions, or rather give you some information about the Timbers and let you draw your own conclusions.
The 3 men in charge of the new Timbers Academy have been planning the structure and execution of their vision for about a year and it will officially begin this summer. Since the Timbers hired the Oregon ODP staff these men have simply used the Academy name to build back up a broken ODP program by creating six “ODP Regional Training Centers”. Other than trying to reconstitute their ODP program they primarily focus on their summer camps. This is not hard to figure out. Go to the academy website and click on the “Pathway to the Pros” pyramid ( http://www.portlandtimbers.com/youth/portland-timbers-youth-academy ). The first 4.5 of 12 written pages are devoted to promoting their camps. I have never seen the correlation between 5 day recreation camps and developing professional players, but maybe these guys know something I don’t. Their final move was to partner with 3 youth clubs in the Portland metro area, but Adidas pushed for this as more of a business partnership. The Academy director’s don’t have much desire to help these clubs or knowledge regarding what the partnership even means. After a year of planning, the following is word for word what the Timbers Academy directors have come up with for creating home grown professional talent in Portland and was given to me by technical director Mike Smith:

Portland Timbers Future Youth Development Plan
1. Mission and Goals
-Developing players and building teams who compete at the highest level.
-Every soccer player in our organization has the right to receive the best possible soccer training.
2. General Principles
-Player development is first and foremost. Results are secondary to development
-Through the U14 age group, training and development are more important than the game result.
-Respect the individual player. Allow each player to develop their individual qualities.
-If appropriate, allow players to “play up”
-Allow playes to play in different positions
-Skills training should be our main focus when working with youth players.
-Coaches should always consider what is best for the individual player.
-Allow players to be creative.
-Strive to maintain integrity within our sport.
-Know and follow all the rules and policies set forth by club, league, state and national associations.
-Work in the spirit of cooperation to provide the players with the maximum opportunity to develop.
-Be a positive role model.
-Set the standard for sportsmanship.
-Keep sport in proper perspective.
-Encourage moral and social responsibility.
-Continue soccer education.

………..Is this a mirror image of Barca’s player development plans, or that of an American recreation organization?. As for the U23’s, they probably aren’t too disappointed in the loss Tuesday night. I’ve played with and against a few of them and they are used to getting beat by adult amateur teams.

First off, for anyone who has seen the joke that is PDL soccer, this is no surprise at all. Especially from Wynalda’s CAL FC team, they put sequences together that you will never see from any PDL team. The excuse that the Timbers are a thrown together team is nonsense in my opinion, and here’s the simple reason why: They are essentially the reserve team for an MLS team. Do you think a Sunday league team would have a chance in hell at beating Barcelona B for example? That’s laughable! You can tell these guys aren’t the fittest, but the decision making and comfort on the ball and possession sequences is better than any PDL team, and probably better than most MLS teams (although in MLS the speed of play is faster, and space gets closed quicker which makes it more difficult). However, it is absolutely ridiculous that part time players that aren’t paid a dime to play are vastly more talented than the vast majority of bumbling dufaces that make their living playing in this country. We will see how these teams do, but Wynalda could be well on his way to making a huge statement here I think, I could see that winning both their next two games (Wilmington and the Timbers). The only things that may get in their way is lack of team cohesion and individual fitness because they just show up and play games. Oh and does anyone know if either of these games are going to be streamed? Especially the Cal FC game I would like to see if possible. If they can string together a couple wins it could really be a huge thing for the game in this country, not only because of their winning but because of Wynalda’s loud mouth, he will make damn sure plenty of people know about this and that would be a great thing!

Hey Kevin, I think you misunderstand what exactly this Portland U-23 team is. They are in no way a reserve team for the MLS Timbers. The MLS runs a reserves league and none of these U-23s will be playing for that team because there is no direct association between U-23 and MLS squads. These are kids that played club soccer all over the U.S., currently play NCAA soccer all over the U.S., and come to Portland in the summer for a chance to train in a professional environment. Most of them have no future with the MLS Timbers.

Does Portland care about the U-23s? It seems to be more of a scouting tool instead of a development tool. It is also a marketing tool as many of the home U-23 games start early on weekdays so local schools can go to the park on a field trip to watch.

Does the U-23 team have the best possible coach? Considering Spencer is coaching the MLS squad and has no idea what he is doing, I would suspect not. Portland loves their loud Scottish coach so much but the man has no idea what formation he wants or how best to use the players on his squad. Just look at Kenny Cooper from 2011 to 2012 and you will see what I mean.

Balls out to get the best players? Probably not. They hold tryouts for the U-23s so I doubt there is any scouting going on.

Who picks the players? Probably the the same guys who pick the players for the MLS Timbers.

In short, the Timbers have no idea what they are doing with the U-23s. They are busy trying to build their MLS team still and probably do not care about results from the U-23 program at this time. The recipe they have created is not going to win and it is really not surprising to see them lose when they have no business playing in the USOC. Sadly, other MLS teams are jumping on the U-23 train to do exactly what Portland has done.

In any case, if a professional organization does not take their own programs extremely serious, what does that say?
Furthermore, whoever is the coach of a particular team should feel ownership and pride in their product. Shouldn’t that coach be going to the ends of the earth to do their best?

Gary,
I appriciate the response. I am not trying to champion the Timber’s U23s or their system, I am simply stating what they are. The document you site suggests the U23’s are important, but that is a future outlook. None of the players on the current U23 roster were developed in a Timbers youth academy because that has never existed before the 2012 season. Over half the players comes from outside of the Washington/Oregon area. The expectations are low because most of these players have no ties to Portland and likely will not become members of the senior team. I agree with you to a certain point, I just think the Timbers are the wrong example to use because they are new to the MLS and have not started their development academy. The Chicago Fire Premier might be a better example except they won their opener against the USASA Croatian Eagles.

Another major point I want to stress is that the Timbers U23 squad has no business playing in the USOC. Why does one organization have two teams in what is supposed to be the major US tournament? Would Barcelona B ever play in Copa del Ray or Manchester United Reserves in the FA Cup?

^There is a long history of reserve or “b” teams playing in cup competitions. Holland and Germany are two examples of this where “b” teams are entered into the national cup competition. Having PDL “B” or “u23” teams and what not can play in USOC – no biggy. If ever a senior and PDL team were drawn together I imagine they’d make first teamers ineligible to play for the PDL etc etc…

I took a quick look at the Timbers U23 highlights. What struck me was the extremely week finishing from the Timbers. The shots from PSA had venom, purpose and direction. The shots from the Timbers were soft or directly to the keeper or both. The Timbers mostly looked hopeful when they shot. PSA looked purposeful. To me those are some tell tale signs of quality versus athleticism. Interestingly 3 of the PSA players previously played for the Timbers A team back a few years ago when the Timbers where still a div 2 team.

BTW I am a Portland area resident and Timbers supporter who is completely dissatisfied with the quality of play this year from all three Timbers squads, A team, Reserves and U-23s.

Wynalda’s team look like a quality squad. I can’t imagine what the result would have been if they played Portland’s U23’s. Wynalda is an outspoken critic of our USNT system and this goes to show why. I would rather watch his team than our National team. I would like to know how many of Wynalda’s players are US players and, if they all are, then why do players like this, who actually know what to do with the ball and have patience balanced with a sense of urgency, fall through the cracks in this country? Damn this is so frustrating. I am sick of the excuses and the ineptitude!

Each philosophy requires its own set of coaching competencies. In the case of the players in question, the philosophy required is a possession-centered, attacking, and ‘attractive’ one. The most difficult of all!

So the main thing is …
You must be capable of Set Tactical Work (like choreography) to train the players/team in all the details the philosophy requires.

These coaches have zero experience in how to do that.

So they don’t know where every player on the field should be under x, y, or z circumstances. And even if they did (ie knowledge), they don’t know how to train it (ie execution / experience).

If you’re looking for a list of details required, I can tell you on my desk right now I have a 100 page proprietary document of one of the greatest clubs in the world that outlines that stuff.

Gary – that is exactly the response I was looking for! I am a young coach (young in experience that is) but, in my head, I know how I want my team to play and I can visualize how to get them there. When you said ‘choreography” , it clicked. I am always thinking of drills where the players practice movement and as you said choreography. Now, i have always thought that this is how soccer coaching should be, but I have never experienced it. But I have to start somewhere right? I have just taken over a U9 team full of players that I selected at our club tryouts. I selected these boys based on their passing and 1st touch abilities. I cannot wait to try my drills with them because i finally have a team of players who can pass, trap, dribble and finish. I will pay you for that 100 page document!! I imagine its from Barca which in that case would be worth more to me than the Bible!! I read this website daily and I am obsessed with improving my coaching abilities. Anything you can offer, even if just a small choreographed drill how-to, or a word of wisdom, would be amazing and very helpful. This site is all about improving coaching and playing in this country, I will be your guinea pig! lol. My new team’s first practice is this Tuesday and its time to get these boys rolling!

I have to be totally honest. I watched just the first 4ish minutes of the PSA-CalFC video. During that time the majority of 5-sequence passes were in the defensive third or defensive half. And once pressure was exerted the ball was lost needlessly. The few possessions in the attacking third in those 4 minutes were erratic at best. All the possessions to which I refer were by the CalFC team.

I have no doubt the teams are good but those sequences were very poor and I am not sure why they were highlighted?

I appreciate the time and effort in showing teams that try to maintain the ball – but I couldn’t bother watching the entire video. Someone can slam me for “laziness” or clarify for me that the possessions improve and the team is able to maintain the ball under pressure in the attacking third?

If you stopped watching after 4 minutes… go back and watch the sequence in the attacking third of the field from 4:09 to 4:27. Not bad, eh? Or from 7:08 to 9:27.

Another thing to keep in mind… this is one half. Presumably the first half. Over a 90 minute game, those passes around the back completely wear down the opposition. You could see the frustration at times from PSA players as they attempted to go rogue and chase a bit. When that begins to happen, it makes going forward a bit easier. Also, you must look at the length of this video. 11 minutes. It’s 11 minutes of Cal FC on the ball. This isn’t including chasing the balls down for goal kicks, corners, and throw ins. All of the stoppages for fouls and injuries (except one little scuffle). All of the sequences that were less than 5 touches that might have led to opportunities for Cal FC (and PSA). I think it’s safe to say that Cal FC had the ball the majority of the time… and they were creating chances… and i would take that any day of the week.

What would you prefer?

Another thing to keep in mind… this is like… a glorified mens league team. I doubt they practice together on a regular basis. I doubt they’re in top shape. When you’re not in shape, things like first touch, penetrating passes, and those creative flicks become much, much harder tasks to accomplish. Imagine if these guys were given the same fitness regimen of an MLS team, but played this same style. Imagine if they practiced just as much as an MLS team. IMAGINE IMAGINE IMAGINE!

I love dreaming about this stuff. I hate waking up to the nightmare that we call reality, though.

Hi John – I will watch those two time frames you suggest. I am aware passing around the back can wear down the opposition and is good – but I had hoped this sight would show appropriate possession in the attacking third. Much more difficult than in the defensive third. Creating chances is wondering – and what I was hoping/expecting to see in the video. But when it is 4 minutes of passing around the back I don’t get why that’s being highlighted. We’ve all seen good 11 year old teams do that.

I don’t want to “imagine” how some amateur men’s team can play if they practiced together though, TBH. I come here to see what an accomplished team can produce and HOW they produce it. Not what a team MIGHT do.

Maybe you should go watch a Whitecaps USSDA game? See how they do. (I’ve not seen them but by all accounts they knock it around very nicely).

You remark that (paraphrase) “what if these guys had all the training MLS teams do.” My question is, if these guys are technically strong enough shouldn’t they be knocking on MLS teams’ doors? Shouldn’t their coaches (esp a guy like Wynalda, who has contacts) be sending these guys to MLS teams, Mexican teams, Euro or South Am teams? I am guessing your point is the MLS teams don’t coach a creative-enough style? Which I definitely agree with. But go watch Whitecaps or Seattle. They both play strong possession soccer at times. Keeping in mind the defenders they are up against are much fitter, faster, stronger than those in the video within this blog post.

Funny you mention knocking on doors… Gary just pointed out that the def-mid for Cal FC was on the El Salvador U23 squad that eliminated the US in Olympic Qualifiers. He just graduated Cal State Bakersfield and was also snubbed by MLS teams. Goes back to player selection, scouting, and all of that shit. What are MLS teams looking for? Not this. Not yet at least.

If you haven’t noticed… this is a site that is focused on POSSESSION OF THE BALL! I don’t think the video was meant to suggest that these are the absolute best players playing the absolute best soccer. More of a slap in the face and wake up call saying that if these guys can string passes together with the limited coaching they receive… why can’t the full time players pull it off? Why don’t the full time coaches demand it? It’s more of a challenge to those that are “better” to step it the fuck up! (cough… Timbers U23’s… cough)

What’s up dude.
The video is not meant for mindless entertainment purposes (ie “Wow! Look at that goal”). That’s what your typical American soccer site is for.

Everything we do here is for education. In that regard, the video has value.

So let me give you just one
The video’s purpose in the context of the post is to give people a flavor for ‘who’ these teams are. You can ‘see’ (hopefully) what the players look like, their concept of play, the quality of their touch, etc… For readers who care to learn, the video provides some tangible reference from which to judge. This same post without the video provides infinitely less.

Ok, I’ll give you another one:
Cal FC is full of latinos, PSA Elite full of ‘white guys’.
With zero training, it’s educational to see the stark contrast in styles of play. PSA elite had one 5-touch sequence in 45 minutes! ONE!

Sorry Gary but when you write “Cal FC is full of latinos, PSA Elite full of ‘white guys’.
With zero training, it’s educational to see the stark contrast in styles of play. PSA elite had one 5-touch sequence in 45 minutes! ONE!” it’s tough not to wonder what you are suggesting….realizing your last name doesn’t appear latino.

But yes…Canada and USA are struggling greatly because there is no focus/pressure on the kids. Look at hockey Canada, or American football & baseball. Set standards that must be met before moving to a new level of play. And every coach knows what those requirements are. None such luck in soccer.

haha, yes, I noticed. This response just now frames better for me why the specific video was chosen – “More a slap in the face and wake up call saying that if these guys can string passes together with the limited coaching they receive…”. Thanks.

I think back to the starting midfielders on the El Salvador u23 team for those games and then I think of the technical levels of some of the lower MLS players (I am specifically thinking of the subs on my MLS team, Whitecaps) and I shudder – how is this guy not in MLS but those guys are” Can’t be a salary thing. This ES player would take a very low salary to have a chance at proving himself.

MLS coaches are so afraid of losing, they see the “big/fast” guys most MLS teams have and know or think they know if they choose slower technical players they won’t stand a chance on counter attacks or set-plays. Disappointing.

I don’t know much about TImbers u23’s but I do believe it is an after thought. Certainly compared to how Sounders and Whitecaps are approaching their u23 programs. Sounders bringing former academy players that are currently in college and playing a positive style. Whitecaps using a few former players that are in college for theirs, 2-3 of their MLS “reserves” (guys like Boxall who need a game) and loads of their u16 (a certain young full back that appears to have a very bright future, for example) and u18 players. Using the PDL for the “:right purposes.”

WOW!! CALL FC is up 2-0 at half! I hope they can finish this thing off. Beating a PDL team is one thing, but their beating a USL Pro team, guys that are paid to play. This is a massive statement and slap in the face to American soccer. Wynalda has to be turning some heads and causing serious questions at this point. Wynalda and this team could be a great thing for American soccer I am really cheering them on, I hope they can finish off this result and at least give Portland some trouble, although if they were to win that game and knock off an MLS team, it could go viral, and that would be a great thing!

This should be a big deal but unfortunately probably won’t be unless they knock off the timbers in the next game. For PSA Elite, when an adult league/Sunday league team plays a full blown pro team, a 6-0 loss should be expected. However, an adult league/Sunday league team traveling to a pro teams place and handing them a thorough ass whooping in front of their fans SHOULD be a very big deal! This really should be an eye opener and a wake up call to soccer people all over the country. People like us following this need to get what’s happening out there and I’m sure wynalda will have plenty to say whenever their cup run is over. Go CFC!

To add on to the magnitude of what this thrown together group at Cal FC did: wilmington doesn’t have a very good record in the USL pro league, however their worst loss of the season was tonight to Cal FC! Their worst loss all year in a pro league was by 3, an adult league team beat them by 4. It really makes you wonder how much better we could be as a soccer nation if we just had any clue of what a quality player is, this clearly shows we are not selecting the best players at our disposal, and great players are falling through the cracks, ones that are far superior than players who have made it through this broken system.

Let’s keep in mind that it is not totally that “we have no clue what a good soccer player is.” It’s also about wages. Professionals in this country earn little to nothing. Not many people are willing to sacrifice their future to play a sport for little to nothing. Sacrifice their future? You ask … well yes, if they are making meager wages they aren’t able to put away retirement savings.

I am sure many good soccer players skip over pro soccer to finish their education. In fact a Whitecaps draft pick put off getting drafted because he wants to be a doctor. He finished the initial education requirements to achieve that, is now drafted, and surely will go back and finish his medical training when his soccer adventure is done. He is a middling player that really should be in USL Pro at best so I am sure he isn’t long for MLS or the pathetic wage he’s getting.

Thiku
While I certainly wouldn’t deny that the MLS money (or lack) has an impact, I would bet that most of the players on FC Cal would gladly quit their day jobs to take an MLS salary. Paying crap players more money does nothing if we can’t identify the good ones..

Gary,
I love the gut level emotion that you bring to soccer development!
We need more passion like that for the pure beauty of the sport in the management ranks of MLS and US Soccer. If they had it they couldn’t possibly continue to lay out their current product week after week without feeling some sense shame.

On another somewhat related topic, I am one of those “bigots” that believes that we need more Hispanic players and also more players that play as if they were Hispanic !! I know that this sets some people off but if I was building a basketball team and said that I wanted black players nobody would bat an eye since that’s where the talent and the love of the game predominantly resides. Well, at this time, the Hispanic community is where the love of the game, love of its culture and love of its beauty predominantly resides !!!

I was just thinking in the shower this morning of how I should educate myself on how basketball was transformed way back when. How blind the masses were, how controversial it was, and how much shit the coaches with the balls to move the game forward had to take!

I suspect the parallels to what’s going on with futbol in this country have a similar underlying root cause.

The soccer community in this country is totally ignorant! And I’m not talking about the ‘inexperienced’. I’m talking everyone. It doesn’t matter if one has 30 years of experience at x, y, or z level.

I suspect you haven’t been watching NBA or Olympic bball lately then? Comparing American (athletes) to South Am/Euro (technicians) shows bball has the same selection problems soccer has. I’ve been reading report after report about NBA over the last few years about how it has become all “flash and dash” and there are far fewer technical players in the NBA compared to days gone by.

“they’re playing the best basketball in the league and they’ve done it by playing the most uptempo style in the NBA, outscoring everyone”

Sound…like Barcelona?

“It’s not just that the Spurs are scoring, but they do it in different ways every down the court. So they really shouldn’t be boring. Except … I don’t know. They’re still boring to me. ”

Maybe…same culture that prefers “kick and run” soccer.

“More than any other sport, basketball thrives on personality.”

What about soccer?

“Nothing about the Spurs offense seems insane. They play this way because it’s really, really effective. If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t.”

Why don’t doesn’t every team play like the Spurs? Why doesn’t every team play like Barcelona?

“Ruthless efficiency isn’t a crime, but it’s not as fun”

Maybe… possession ball will never work in the US?

“Basketball’s a balance of art and science. And the Spurs live at one extreme on that spectrum. There’s no room for interpretation when you have a formula that’s proven and perfected.”

What’s wrong with PERFECTION??? Why would you want to be SUB-optimal?

“So I guess I’d explain myself this way: Basketball’s fun because there’s almost always an element of unknown to the history that may or may not unfold. But the Spurs are so numb and surgical and brutally consistent, there’s no intrigue left except to hope they fail.”

Is soccer fun because because there are a bunch of aimless players running around clueless chasing the ball?

“The basketball fan in me feels guilty, but I just can’t get excited about the Spurs. They’ve gotten so good at this I can’t help but root against them.”

Maybe the US soccer fan will never get excited about a team like Barcelona or a player like Messi. We just chant USA…USA and root against them (Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica).

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, the average US youth soccer player doesn’t watch enough of the game to properly ingest its intricacies. They have no frame of reference at all so therefore they have no clue what is considered the proper way to play. Every time I get a new team to coach, one of my first questions to the players is “How many games a week do you watch on TV/Online?” I always get a resounding ‘0’. I realize I am painting this with a broad stroke, but how can we expect our young soccer players to play the beautiful game if they have no clue what it looks like? Its like explaining to a deaf person what the Beatles sound like and then ask him to reproduce it with a full orchestra. We will never produce a Xavi or an Iniesta because our players have no clue who they are or, more importantly, why they are so good. I see potential in youth players all the time but until they actually start to watch good soccer, and learn from watching, then we will never be able to develop players that others will want to someday watch.

Chad i can understand how you are deriving your pts but let me give you a personal example of what’s happening with my club Joga in DC. I’ve been working with a Inner City DC Charter School for 2-3 days a week for the past 2 1/2 months. Now inner city DC is black and not african black, these are african american black kids with NO HISTORY or anyone that they can pt out with any relevance about the game of soccer. The first day was boom ball, I had to constantly preach touch the ball, control it, keep it close etc.
2 months later (Mind you they have never seen a full soccer match
Now these guys are all trying to play like Neymar and Robinho etc why?? I show moves, showed 1-2 youtube vids that’s all, but more importantly i showed how the game related to their culture, their music, their swag. Instead of teach me “How to Dougie” we sing “Teach me how to Joga”, we dance with the ball, have freestyle contest etc. They are now doing maradona’s and i haven’t taught that, they are starting to take the ball and figure out what “JOGA” means to them.

During a street soccer session I’m like “you just can’t kick the ball, you got to “JOGA”, the kids have taken that to express themselves with the ball to have dance and one of them had me soooooo hyped today because he added the harlem shake (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqjNSONd1vk) before busting some moves out and absolutely destroying this kid. I was jumping up and down waving my towel screaming. What did my reaction do, it created a cultural link, expression 1 v 1 being you is praised in Joga so the others see that as something to aspire to.

Everyday I’m amazed at their creativity and we have only taught basics. But with that culture it allows us to start to impose our philosophy of how we want to play and I’m excited to where that leads us.

I think there are actually many kids who know, who live, and play a certain style a la barca but are they identified, wanted, and those at the top even know how to create a system for these players to shine….

p.s. i got some robinho’s and neymar’s from the hood comin, and they have never watched a full soccer match yet, first match they will watch will be the Euros in 2 weeks

Kephern – I am just up the road from you in Columbia, MD. Would love to hear more about your soccer project. Like I said, I was being terribly general about kids not watching soccer. I have only been coaching for a few years and this lack of visual education has always struck me as a key deficiency in our talent pool. Of course there are kids that just ‘get it’. I feel like I was one of those as a player. I never watched soccer because it was nowhere to be found on TV, only every 4 years for the Cup. Furthermore, of course it is my job as a coach to mold and develop players. I wasn’t suggesting that Youtube or FoxSoccer Channel can take the place of good coaching, it can’t and will not. I was only suggesting that watching soccer would drastically improve our average player’s sense of the game. Do you think Kobe Bryant would be the player he is today if he didn’t grow up idolizing and studying Michael Jordan? I don’t.
What you are doing with your team is admirable. You have tapped into the spirit, magic, and soul of soccer by utilizing your players natural tendencies of being confident and expressive. Instead of developing soccer robots, which is what our USMNT are, you are creating a team of confident players who know how to have fun on the field and play with swagger. I would love to see how you conduct practice in person. Perhaps I will pop down the BW parkway and sneak into your practice one day. 🙂 Good luck.

Kephern, just started adding a music/dance section to our trainings. I choreograph the dance and decide on the music. It’s called “just dance”. Players are starting to move like Robinho and Neymar. Most kids don’t watch real professional games on TV. It’s my job to teach the dance moves and educate them about the superstars of the game.

Chad –
You’re dead on and nothing has changed !! 20 years ago I was saying the same thing and getting the same response. Even older players, indoor and senior leagues, seldom watch games regularly. While I don’t want to get into the usual “chicken or egg” discussion about media and popularity, we are still losing the battle of the media.